Voting Day

This isn't going about who I chose or why I chose them.  I'm not a fan of politics.  I don't enjoy discussing politics at all b/c so many people get huffy about their choices.  I don't like people to be upset or hurt by things I say so I often chose to leave politics to others.  I don't mind talking about candidates and their stances, but I hate the political side of things.  That being said, I always vote, and today was no different.

I find the voting process in each state to be so very unique.  Honestly, Atlanta, being the big thriving city had those awesome electronic machines.  Then we went back in time a little to Florida where you punched the hole in the ancient machines, and voters were treated to snacks and nearly walked in with someone holding your hand to guide you through the process (at least at our poll which happened to be at our church).

Today, in Connecticut, was the most unique experience by far.  First off, the parking lot was a disaster FILLED with people, and the lot was nearly full with people parking all the way down the street causing the road to only be one lane.  I lucked out and got a front row spot from someone who just left, and I was glad b/c while it wasn't raining, it was in the 20's when I voted!  We walked inside and found the longest line ever with people leaving without voting b/c the line was that long.  It turns out that there were 2 lines: one for people living on streets starting A-N and another with people living on streets starting with M-Z.  Fortunately, I live on a street starting with a W along with all 50 other people who live on my same street, but the rest of my area lives on a road starting with A-N.  I have no idea why they divided it that way, but it caused me to get in an out of the polls in 5 minutes and from my door, through the polls and back to my door in less than 15 minutes.  The people in the A-N line were NOT happy, and out of the fairness of my heart, I felt awful to walk in and out when others had been there for hours.  Oh...and the ballots were on card stock paper, and you just have to fill in a bubble.  There is no fancy machine or old school machine where you have to vote.  They just have dividers for privacy purposes, and then you stick your ballot in a box.  I'm pretty sure that our votes won't be counted until the next 2 weeks so likely we will not have a winner until December.

But anyway, I voted.  I'm not excited about this election at all.  My little boy has asked to take a nap today so he can stay up late tonight watching the results.  I'm excited that he is interested, and I'm willing to sacrifice his sleep for something he is so excited about (plus we are those crazy homeschool people who can sleep in the following day).  We even have a printed map to color blue/red and a paper on which to tally the electoral college votes.

This Crazy Diet

At the end of the summer, our family embarked on a food adventure of epic proportion.  Our family as a whole, went off carbs almost entirely.  We followed a ketosis diet which allows us to eat up to 50 carbs daily.  Before, I go any further in describing the diet, I will let you in on a little secret...we even put our children on this diet.

We haven't really announced that as there are so many people out there who criticize us for how we raise our children and now how we feed our children.  I will share that there were MANY reasons we included our children on this journey: they were constantly hungry, they both have eczema badly, one of our children was storing fat in a strange way on his belly, we felt like our children needed to go completely off sugar (yep, including fruit) to learn how to eat better without the option of a carb, and b/c you were just dying to know, one of our children has issued going #2.  Our pediatrician suggested that we try the diet with them for the eczema alone, and she was fully on board with This Crazy Diet.

How did it go for them?  Fantastic!  They are no longer constantly hungry, and therefore, they don't beg for food every 10 to 30 minutes.  Their eczema cleared up entirely without the introduction of carbs in their diet.  The child who was storing fat in strange ways, lost those fat pockets, and 0ur child with the #2 issue has now become regular.  They both have learned that carrots and celery are delicious as are nuts, cheese sticks and bell peppers especially when dipped in a delicious ranch or blue cheese dip.

Another tidbit of info you need to know is that we introduced fat into our diet.  We eat the good stuff like cream cheese, heavy cream, and ranch and blue cheese dressings.  We eat avocado like it's going out of style, and we cook with butter and cocoanut oil.  We also limit our protein into normal portions without going crazy filling up with protein where the carbs are lacking.  We also eat tons of veggies both raw and cooked.  And we eat cheese and more cheese and then some more!  Oh, and did I mention that BACON is on this diet?!  Yum!

I went into This Crazy Diet kinda kicking and screaming.  I have high cholesterol, and we were trying to do something drastic to see if my cholesterol would change so I didn't have to be on meds (which make me feel like I'm having a heart attack).  I also wanted to lose weight which is a struggle with my injuries from a car accident.  Knowing I wanted drastic results, I took these drastic measures.

My hubby, who is leading us in This Crazy Diet, is doing very well.  He's so skinny that we had to get him a whole new wardrobe (well, we're still working on that).  On the other hand, I am still struggling.  I was tired for a while so Mat tweaked my vitamins (of which I take a lot), and I'm totally normal now with feeling just.  We also found that salt had to be added to our diet, and that into of salt somehow makes us feel awake like an energy drink.  Strange...right?  We don't have carb crashes even after a good workout.  I have also lost enough weight that everyone is telling me that I look very thin.  I've lost several inches and my pants are just hanging on me.  Oddly enough, I only dropped about 5 pounds, but even my belly fat started to disappear.

I really miss carbs, and I've kinda had a couple weeks of adjusting my carb intake to play around a bit (and to celebrate my birthday and fall).  Amazingly enough, I lost another 3 pounds while I was in-taking a few more carbs (maybe around 75 per day some days), and I'm still in ketosis (as tested by those strips you can get at the drugstore).  Those 75 carbs seem to make a lot of difference in my carb cravings too.  I still miss eating pizza and many of my favorite Mexican foods.  I also miss my Breyers half the fat chocolate chip ice cream!

Are we going to stay on this diet forever?  I am not sure where we'll land.  I would like to see where this thing takes me on my health journey.  I want to give it a few more months.  I've gradually started adding carbs back into the kids diet.  I have found that with just adding a few into my girls diet, that she has eczema really badly again.  My son is thriving on th

e food he's eating, and he's doing fine with just the few added carbs - just not much (none if I can help it) real sugar.  We give them fruit again, and they still enjoy eating peppers and celery.  I'm not sure where I'll land with the kids. 

I know I've given a lot of information, but I'll add a bit more.  My hubby has also created a blog where he describes the diet in a lot more detail in his engineering way.  It's www.ThisCrazyDiet.blogspot.com.  I think he also gives links to the blogs where we've gotten several of our recipes.  It's an adventure, and it is most certainly crazy!

Viruses and Bloodwork - Fun!

We have had so much fun exploring our new home and spending time with awesome friends that I wore myself out and got sick.  Early Monday morning, I woke up with the chills, and I felt like I was dying.  No fever, just felt yucky.  Mat took good care of me in the middle of the night in spite of getting a late start to getting some much needed Z's after having to clean up Lizzy who wet her bed - something that never happens.  However, right after I fell back to sleep, Lizzy came up to me and started to whisper, "Mommy."  Mat quickly stepped in and called her to him.  I heard the most adorable whispering going on between the two of them...

Lizzy: said in a cute whisper voice "Daddy, um, I went to sleep in my bed, and then I disappeared and reappeared in Andrew's bed."
Mat: after a little laughing "Baby, you wet your bed so I moved you into Andrew's room.  You didn't disappear."
Lizzy: "oh" ran back to Andrew's room, but quickly came back "Daddy, can I snuggle with you for just a little bit."

I think it really freaked her out when she woke up in a different location.  Poor thing!  Isn't she just the cutest!  Had I not been feeling so awful I would have stolen those snuggles from Mat.

A sweet friend found out I was so sick, and she took my kiddos for the afternoon until my hubby could pick them up.  I'm pretty sure I was near deaths door for a little while there even though my fever was next to nothing.  I'm feeling more like I'm walking with the living again today, and I'm so thankful that the bug wasn't long lasting (and praying that I'm the only one who gets to enjoy it).  My little boy has been an excellent care taker while Daddy attends a mandatory class at work.

I also figured that it was time to take my little allergy ridden daughter to the ped to see if there was something I could do to help her little snotty face and hacking up a hairball problem that she's had since the weather changed.  The ped (and I) are fully sure that she simply has allergies so the doc sent little Lizzy to get blood work to see if we could target the stuff causing all these allergies.  I didn't think it would be a big deal, and Lizzy is so brave...but then the nurse couldn't find a vein...and she dug around in Lizzy's arm until I thought I would lose my lunch.  My daughter is a superhero...I'm sure of it after watching her endure that torture.  She did start crying for her Daddy (which who can blame a girl for wanting her Daddy to protect her from all that?).  It broke my heart!

So here's wishing all of you the best of health.  I am so glad all that is behind us!

Enjoying a Simple Day

My house is a very fun place to be today.  I am thoroughly enjoying my kids.  We had a weird morning as I had a doc appt.  The kids were rock stars and behaved very well.  I think they were anticipating Mommy torture so that prompted them to get ready and out the door without me having to yell hurry a million times too - which helped me since I was extremely stressed about the appt I had.  While I was waiting for the doc, I realized that I had scheduled 3 of the worst appts you could possibly schedule all in one week.  Fortunately, the first of the 3 doc visits went better than I could have imagined so I'm hopeful that the other 2 doc visits are as easy.

My little girl has done a fantastic job learning and doing school today!  She sat beside me for nearly an hour working on something that usually causes much grief...and she did it with joy today.  In addition to that, she counted to 39.  I was skeptical that anything I was teaching her was actually being absorbed!

After the more formal school was done for the day, we watched a Netflix program called TED for Kids.  We watched a math-a-magician do some hard core math problems in his head.  The program only lasted 17 minutes so we watched some dancers (if you could call them that) move like robots, and the kids enjoyed mimicking them...until Lizzy got a little too carried away.  She was showing us her "moves like Jagger" when she fell and clocked her head on the floor.  Sadly, she started crying for her Daddy (what's up with that?), and a nice egg shaped bruised formed on her head immediately.  Maybe we should just stick to Wii Dance for now.

Anyway, we gotta run to swimming and gymnastics, but I think I have just enough time to swing by Kohl's...and I have $10 in Kohl's cash burning a hole through my pocket!

Ta ta for now...and I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful Fall day as much as we are!

Happy Fall Ya'll

This month has been filled with activity after activity...and I love every second of it - well, almost. I wish I could paint a picture of the scenery here. I think where we live is pretty perfect b/c it amplifies my love of Fall. There is a magnificent tree in my front yard. I think it's a maple tree, but I don't really know what it is. What I do know, is that it's got the most brilliant colors, and people come from all over the neighborhood to collect the leaves that fall from our tree. We've got pictures to share as some very special visitors came all the way from the sunshine state to visit, and we took pictures in piles of leaves right in my front yard! I enjoyed being a tourist in my own state this past week as we went to museum after museum enjoying learning about Yale, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Dinosaurs, and lots about the state of Connecticut including the Mystic Seaport. Our visitors stayed in our home and drove us to all these wonderful places, and we were so thankful to have them. There has already been talk of making it an annual adventure...we

know how to treat a guest so if you're pondering a visit to the Northeast, give us a call. We'd love to have you! After our guests left, we packed up and headed further north to camp with some church friends in Northwestern Massachusetts. It was downright COLD, but all of us enjoyed a great time in the wilderness including the dog. And while we all had fun, I can't decide if Elizabeth or Sydney enjoyed camping the most. Our kids can't stop talking about their adventure in the frozen (did I mention that it was 27 degrees) mountains nor can they wait to do it again. I would much more appreciate camping in warmer weather, but I'd do it again if I was really honest. I've got pictures of that too! Now that we're back and the house in empty, you wouldn't believe the disaster this house is in. I just need to reflect on all the fun we had while I clean it up...to make the work more enjoyable. Happy Fall, Ya'll! I hope you're enjoying it as much as we are!

Walking Disasters

I love my children, but they are little walking disasters. Today, I woke up later than usual. Mat was up sick last night so we slept in today. The kids did NOT sleep in so they were up earlier than us creating messes...the kind only an adult can clean up. Just to give you a picture of some of the messes that already lay in waiting for me to clean...a rainstorm earlier in the week minorly flooded my daughter's room. The rug was soaked, the boxes under her window that were filled with lots of tiny pieces of toys were soaked, and that left lots of wet toys inside of the boxes. In the middle of the night while the power was out, my best idea was to dump all the toys out of her boxes all over the rest of her room so they could dry out. We haven't had much time at home lately so her room is still a disaster. My son's room is also a wreck. He's been creating little Lego master pieces that he believes need to be on display all around his room. Since their rooms aren't any fun anymore b/c they are too messy, they have moved on to the school room and the living room. The biggest mess this morning had more to do with all the craft projects they started (mainly the girl). There are craft projects sprawled out all over the school room. It's stressful to start school with the house a wreck, and even more difficult to sit there teaching my children when on the inside my heart feels as cluttered as my house. We started with Bible, so while I don't feel like I'm a spiritual mess...just a stress kind of mess! I'd love suggestions or advice from other moms in this same stage of life. How do you cope with the stress of the mess? Do you start school in spite of the mess? Honestly, little minds here are fresh in the morning. If we don't start school first thing, the day seems to last forever. By evening, I'm so tired that I don't have enough left in me to put things away. And if there is a friend out there who just loves to organize, I'd love some help. I'm not doing the whole organizing thing very well...and somehow that causes my stress level to stay on high all the time so when little additional stresses come along, I fall apart. I love my babies. I love their little works of art whether it's in Lego form or made with glitter glue or markers. I love the little gifts they make for me and for friends. I love teaching them and staying home with them. I love the fun times we share together throughout the day. This whole cleaning up thing is such a bother! Where is that cleaning lady when I need her?...or better yet, why can't I seem to part with some of this junk so my life will just be simple?

September and the beginning of Fall

It has been the busy-est month every. I don't know how everything gets done to be honest. I will say that I'm having a hard time coping with the stress of the busy days and even little things set my insides into crazy mode. However, being busy and stressed out doesn't meant that we haven't been having a blast here! We LOVE Connecticut! We love our new friends! We love the things that fill our days! We love the weather even though some days I struggle to get out from under the warm sheets, and I've realized that I only like cold sheets when it's hot outside! God has blessed us abundantly, and we are so thankful to be in Connecticut...and right in the center of God's will!